It’s very easy to undermine the power and presence that social media holds over our daily lives. Although sites like Twitter and Facebook are inherently simple, there is no doubt that they influence our lives in a way that wouldn’t have been thought possible a mere ten years ago. Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic figures in the United States, and if it were a country it would be the third largest in the world, even though the social networking site is banned in China. To add to these statistics, a massive fifty percent of UK mobile internet traffic is directed at Facebook, and this figure proves why 93% of marketers are so keen to integrate social media into their marketing strategies.
It doesn’t end with Facebook either, as Twitter is home to an average of 140 million posts per day, whilst celebrities such as Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Britney Spears have more followers than the entire populations of Sweden, Israel, Greece, Chile, North Korea, and Australia. The now infamous Volkswagen advert starring a young Darth Vader was watched by over 37 million people but on YouTube, not television, and if you needed any more persuading that social media is an unparalleled force, it is predicted that social gamers will spend six million dollars on virtual goods by 2013.
Whether you are appalled or in awe of these figures, it’s plain to see why videogame developers are trying everything possible to integrate Twitter, Facebook and YouTube into their titles. Sony first kicked off the movement with firmware version 3.10, which allowed users to link their Facebook with PSN to share details such as earned trophies and purchase information.
This ethic of sharing has continued and is becoming much more evident today, with the promised inclusion of YouTube and Facebook in Uncharted 3. Whilst in game you can chat to your Facebook friends and even invite them to your party, as Christophe Balestra, Naughty Dog co-president, explains when talking to USA Today. “Our goal for Facebook is to really make sure you can interact with your Facebook friends the way you interact with your PSN friends… I don’t think anyone has gone to that level to bring Facebook within the game.” He boasts that Naughty Dog are “the first ones to be doing this” potentially setting a standard for competitors who hope to offer a similar experience.
[drop] It’s impossible to fault the ambition being shown by Naughty Dog, but a crucial question remains; does anyone really care whether you have achieved a new trophy or gained a top spot on the leaderboard? Balestra makes it clear that the integration means much more than simply notifying your friends about your progress. “We’re not just updating your wall with basic things happening in the game… we’re trying to create unique stories every time you play, to continue this feeling of a familiar and close-knit community.”Uncharted 3 will also contain extensive video editing tools, expanding on what was possible on Uncharted 2. Each multiplayer session is automatically stored and players can post clips of up to ninety seconds to their Facebook walls and even longer sections of footage onto YouTube. The best uploads will then be played via the in-game television channel, Uncharted TV, which Balestra feels is a pivotal feature within the online experience; “We want to give you access to all the media being generated by Uncharted within Uncharted” he says.
There is no doubt that the sharing options of Uncharted 3 are currently without comparison, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that there could be a reason for that. It’s likely that your Facebook friends will be your friends on the PlayStation Network, so inviting your friends to games through the social networking website could be debated as effectively pointless. Similar could be said for the ability to chat to your Facebook friends through PSN; is it really necessary when you could simply send them a message through the PlayStation Network itself?
At this stage, four months before release, it’s admittedly difficult to predict whether the social networking features that Balestra screams about will have a significant impact on the way that we play videogames. It’s certainly novel, and with the aforementioned social media statistics it’s definitely worth an effort, but whether it’s a feature that will be forgotten within a couple of weeks from release remains to be seen. Only one thing can be assured; if the videogaming community embraces these features and continue to utilise them throughout the Uncharted 3 lifespan it could mark a monumental change in online gaming, where everything, down to the very last gunshot, is shared.
Tuffcub
I think the you have answered your own questions – “…a feature that will be forgotten within a couple of weeks from release remains to be seen.”
“…why 93% of marketers are so keen to integrate social media into their marketing strategies.”
Anything posted from Uncharted to Facebook is just free advertising for Naughty Dog.
cc_star
Was just about to draft an article on a new layer being added to gaming.
Going beyond Facebook friends-list interaction is Steamworks (lite) arriving on the PS3, EA launching Origin on PC (and who knows maybe on their future console games) Call Of Duty Elite allowing CoD players to interact wherever they are
Will the future see all publishers managing their own networks, with separate friend-lists, voicechat etc as they all make attempts to further ‘own’ their customers with their own networks, social networks and even stores.
beeje13
A very good point in the last paragraph, which shows once again thatsome publishers are acting selfishly, putting their stubborn preference before what the gamers want – as few networks as possible.
Ben
Since everyone already has an extensive friends list on facebook it would be most convenient to integrate that into the PSN, importing the relevant contacts. A PSN clan/group feature would also be useful, for example for finding TSA on the PSN, which could be extended to seeing people nearby / at same school/uni/office…, etc.
Crocadillian
I think some alerts are nice, but at times it gets too much. Eg. whenever a friend found a sheep on this game a notification got sent to me. I definitely don’t mind seeing someones overall progress, but constant alerts about small details is irritating…
DuffyBox
Was going to mention this on the nuTSAck podcast but I forgot. I saw the screens for BF3’s Battlelog and I think it’s utterly horrible. From a stats website I want stats and nothing more, certainly not “likes” and comments. Maybe the ability to compare your stats with those of a friend’s, but anything more is a real annoyance to me.
Smallville2106
I personally hate all this. It is purely and simply just companies pushing for free advertising etc.
hazelam
but it’s purely optional, and as advertising goes, it’s one of the least intrusive forms of advertising i’ve ever seen.
Smallville2106
Games will eventually have a trophy or two for posting scores or similar things on Facebook. Just hope this doesn’t happen with UC3.
xdarkmagician
I’ve been wondering who pays for the social site development, I mean does Naughty Dog pay for the development work required for the support, or does Facebook supplement the costs of interaction. I honestly don’t understand why they need Facebook, I mean the PSN and Home is suppose to be a social site for PS3 fans. I wish devs would just support Home more. IMO every 1st party title should have massive Home support instead of Facebook support. I don’t care if Facebook wants to throw Naughty Dog some cash to add Facebook support, but if Naughty Dog is paying the development costs and you need a Facebook account to get all the content then IMO that’s bad.
hazelam
maybe it’s included in the marketing budget, seeing as it could be considered a form of advertising, one of the less intrusive forms but still advertising.
it is spreading the word about the game to all your facebook friends, many of which might not be playing the game yet.
quite a good idea when you think about it.
gideon1451
It’s alright, but it’s got to have limits. Most of my friends don’t care in the slightest about games, why would they want to hear about what stage I’ve got up to in a game?
Ben
I certainly wouldn’t want to post that sort of thing on my wall.
Foxhound
Facebook, is it really all that?
colmshan1990
Just think of it as one giant banter page from the TSA forum, only without the anonymity we have.
So slightly less penis jokes, then. :P
DirtyHabit
I use Facebook rarely at best. To be honest if people I have on there keep spamming up games etc I’m more likely to delete them than find out more about the game :)
gideon1451
True that.
DJ Judas
I really dislike Facebook and the concept of social media in general….as it exists today, not in the original sense of its conception.
I dislike that now, everything appears on Facebook, in a quite brazen “Here, give us free advertising!” way.
The internet’s blessing and curse is that it brings anonymity, whereas Facebook shoots the complete other end of the spectrum and encourages complete transparency and openness about every aspect of your life should you choose to display it; granted this is not required, but it is encouraged.
It’s just another layer of communication attachment to become addicted to.
Innovations in communications have accelerated our sociability and advancement however we inherently need some layers that are left unturned in our personalities and of those around us. If profits and sources of influence further encourage the progression and use of e-socialisation then it will be of detriment to what makes us individual.
I’m a complete gadget obsessive, so saying this may seem odd, but I can’t help but think the world would be a better place if we didn’t have the extensions we do to our communication for social purposes, it works/will work to our detriment as a society.
/rant
I just don’t want to see Facebook updates everywhere, or requests to ‘like’ things, or let everyone I know everything I’m doing automatically whether they want to know or not
When a Facebook account becomes compulsory to do the things I love to do; it will be a sad day.
Foxhound
Cheers for the constructive rant. Facebook? never!
DJ Judas
Indeed, it just gets me a little annoyed as it slowly works it’s way more and more into my daily life. Perhaps I’m getting a little long in the tooth.
DRCD1
The concept of “adding a friend” is something I have yet to understand, and most likely never will.